Monday, March 18, 2024

Riverside offers innovative robotic guided spinal surgery

Riverside Health System offers navigated spine robots for spinal surgeries. (WYDaily/Courtesy of Riverside Regional Medical Center) 

NEWPORT NEWS — Riverside Health System (RHS) is the first medical provider in Hampton Roads to offer the Mazor X™ Robotic Guided Spinal Surgeries.

The groundbreaking technology “combines pre-operative planning software, instrument and implant navigation and robotic guidance for placement of implants into the spine,” according to an RHS statement.   

“It does that with a greater precision than what a surgeon could do if they were just using the standard anatomical techniques,” said RHS neurosurgeon, Dr. Jackson Salvant. He also said that RHS‘ Neurological & Spine Institute is using the most current generation of robotic navigation. 

Riverside’s Neurological & Spine Institute is a center that uses advanced treatment for brain and spinal disorders, diseases, and for other injuries.

Riverside said that the Mazor X Stealth Edition Robotic Guidance Platform is “especially useful in caring for patients requiring spinal surgeries related to degenerative, postural, curvature and other conditions.”

This includes patients suffering from neck or back pain, tumors on the spine or spinal injuries. 

The new device automates certain tasks during surgery for positioning and placement of implants in the bones of the spine, guiding the surgeons during the spinal implant procedures. 

According to Dr. Salvant, the device allows surgeons to use 3D technology so that they can choose the location and trajectory of the implants that they want to use for a patient prior to surgery.

Before the Mazor X Stealth Edition Robotic Guidance Platform, surgeons would place the implants into the patients themselves to support the structure of the spine for tumors or traumatic injuries.

The new device holds and positions instruments so that surgeons can accurately place bone screws in the implants.

RHS said that, although the medical system’s surgeons began using the robotic system in March after extensive training, it’s a technology that has been tested on for over a decade.

There are currently two of these devices used by RHS surgeons. “It’s not something that’s going to be found at every community hospital,” said Dr. Salvant. 

The robotic arm, which can be manipulated by the surgeon, is linked to another console that can take the surgeon’s instructions and apply that input.  

While it is possible for a surgeon to operate the device independently, Dr. Salvant said that there is usually an additional staff member present during the procedure in order to manage the iPad-like function on the robotic arm.

Dr. Salvant said that the Mazor X allows for 99% accuracy and is under direct control and supervision of the surgeon, so patients are safe in its care. 

“It’s truly the future of spinal surgery,” Salvant said. “It’s definitely something that’s going to be adopted with greater frequency.”

Patients not only experience a smoother surgery because of the device, but can have a more comfortable post-operative recovery process.

With a less invasive procedure, the device allows patients to have a faster and less painful recovery.

The robotic procedures are performed at Riverside Regional Medical Center, 500 J. Clyde Morris Boulevard in Newport News.

YOU MIGHT ALSO WANT TO CHECK OUT THESE STORIES:

Related Articles

MORE FROM AUTHOR